Speak the new one
by The Queen Of Mischief
Summary: A few days after Andy was caught...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1  
**

It had only been a couple of days after Andy was caught. I walked down the halls of school feeling slightly more secure. That felt good. And suddenly, everyone knew me.

I had never really longed to be popular, but this was different. Everyone was apologizing to me.

My mom quit her job and is now looking after me at home. My dad's boss heard and gave him a _raise_.

Rachel came crying to me, begging me to forgive her. How could I say no? My life was totally different. Rachel begged me ten times to let her give me a total makeover. I only let her play with my hair. No way in hell was I going to let her touch makeup when I was in a one-mile radius.

I was still a bit depressed. I can never forget it. What Andy Evans did to me has scarred me in a way which I can never forget. The pain, the wind, the leaves in my hair, the weight of his 200-pounds on me… I found tears in my eyes.

They blurred my sight and I bumped into someone while trying to brush them away while walking. My mouth opened slightly as I fell backwards. The person I had bumped into also fell down, but he recovered faster than I had because I doubt he had been crying too.

He was looking at me now. I tried to avoid his gaze, but blue-green eyes made it hard to look away.

"You're Melinda, right?" he asked, after a pause.

I said nothing. He probably took it as confirmation.

"I heard what happened."

I said nothing.

"I'm so sorry."

I…yep, you guessed it, said nothing.

"…I'm Evin, by the way."

I allowed myself a small smile. He clearly seemed happy with himself.

"I guess you already know who I am."

He smiled, but not completely.

"You're wondering how it happened." I said quietly.

"You don't know the whole story and how it happened to me. You're curious." I had no idea why I was about to tell my whole story to a virtual stranger.

"It was September last year. My best friend invited me to a party which she had been invited to by another friend. Everyone was drinking. I didn't know why I couldn't have a tiny sip, too. I did, but it got out of hand. Then Andy Evans, whom we all were crushing on, took me out. He started touching me, but I was too drunk to say anything. He raped me, and I tried to run, but I couldn't. I went back and called the cops, but couldn't say anything to them. I was too scared and ashamed. They busted the party and everyone hated me. Story of my life."

"I'm so sorry,"

"I hate me, too"

"Come on, it wasn't your fault."

I didn't know how to respond, so I just looked up into those eyes for one last time and walked away.

He stood there, just staring for a moment, before regaining himself and turning to his locker. She was different. She was so dark, quiet, secretive. She was beautiful, but she didn't bother with herself. He intended to give her her life back. He didn't know why. He just wanted to.

I felt so embarrassed. Why did I just walk away? He seemed to want to hear what I had to say. He seemed like a good person. So had Andy, I thought. I tried to forget, but couldn't, and so, I found myself crying for the second time that day, all because of a virtual stranger.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The next term…

I peered closely at my new timetable. I had Science. I went to the class and settled down, ignoring the worried looks that people gave me. I don't know why, they just did.

Someone walked into the class. I froze. It was Evin. I still remembered our meeting clearly, and apparently, so did he. He smiled in a friendly way and walked towards me. Damn. I felt so stupid about how I'd behaved the other day.

"Mind if I sit?" he asked politely, gesturing to the seat next to me, even though we both knew he didn't have a choice; all the other seats were taken by people and their best buddies.

I smiled only slightly.

"You can't not talk to me forever, you know." He grinned.

I beamed up into his , as if to say "I can too,"

He mock-rolled his eyes.

The teacher came in.

She was being super-nice to me. It was embarrassing. I thought people had gotten over that already. I hadn't, for sure, but then again, I probably never would.

After class, Evin followed me to the cafeteria.

"Mind if I sit with you?" he asked.

"Don't you have friends you want to hang around with, rather than being around the school freak, which could ruin your status permanently?" I asked quietly, my gaze not quite meeting his.

"Number one, you are _not, _under any circumstances, the school freak. Number two, I don't think my friends would really mind if I sat with you that is of course, if they are my real friends. Number three, my status will _not _be ruined if I sit with you."

I smiled a bit and gestured to the table where I would be sitting, in the far corner.

He grinned. "Great," he said, and went off to join the caf line. When he saw I was not with him, but quietly sitting at the table, sipping some water, he walked over.

"Aren't you eating?"

"I have never been much of a fan of food."

He stared at me. "You're telling me you don't eat, at all?"

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "If I didn't eat at all, I don't think I would be here right now, having this conversation about my eating habits with you, do you?"

"So you're a vampire…"

My eyebrow went up even higher, but I couldn't help but let out a tiny giggle. He grinned. I raised my right wrist to him and said, "Why don't you find out for yourself?"

Unfortunately, my sleeve fell back and the smile on my face vanished as I jerked back my hand and tugged my sleeve over the soft white skin of 

my wrist. But his smile had vanished too, and I could tell he had seen what I had seen, too.

He sat down across me and said, "Why?"

I shrugged.

"How long?"

I was quiet.

"_How long, Melinda?_" he said.

"One year." I mumbled.

He pulled my wrist towards him but I winced and pulled back. He glanced at me and gently, this time, took my hand and brought it toward himself.

He lifted my sleeve a bit and his jaw dropped.

My hand was covered in small scratches. Oh, who was I kidding? They were huge gashes. Some of them were doodles of trees and some were words, like 'Melinda' and 'pain' and…stuff. Some of them were just plain gashes. It looked like a collage. Rather pretty, in a way.

"Why did you do this to yourself?"

Because I hurt. I've been hurting ever since last year. I've been hurting since last year and the pain is never going to end. My headvoice said. Apparently I said it out loud.

He fingered the scars. I didn't object. One of the best trees I had drawn was on my wrist. If only I could have shown that to Mr. Freeman. He would have been delighted. I think.

"Please, please don't do this to yourself, Mel."

Mel. No one had ever called me that before. It was cute. Mellie-moo. Okay, what?

Oh wait, he told me not to do it again. I suppose I could try. I mean, it wasn't particularly fun to escape from your mom, hide in the bathroom with a knife or whatever and slash yourself.

God, my headvoice is getting noisy. I'd said that out too. Crap. I'd said that out, too.

"Good," he said, not sounding very happy, though.

"Now, you have to eat. If you don't, you won't function properly and you will eventually die due to starvation."

I rolled my eyes. I couldn't die from starvation by skipping one meal a day.

He insisted on buying me something to eat and got a soda along with it.

"This isn't too bad…" I said, looking at my chicken filet.

"Told ya,"

"Now, you have to eat every day, every meal, forever and ever." He sounded about six years old.

I started giggling. I almost choked on my soda. He looked at me, then laughed. Like, really laughed,

I smiled back at him. He seemed nice enough, really.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Wanna do homework together today?"

I was a bit hesitant. I mean, after _my _history with men, I didn't want to get too close to anyone for the fear that they would hurt me the way Andy had.

But I realizes that it would be rude to say no after he'd been so nice to me and I figured that it would be alright to say no to him.

"Sure," I said. He seemed happy.

This stuff was so easy! I thought. Why had I never been able to do this before? Even though I was slightly distracted by the person sitting across me at the table who smelt like peanut butter and chocolate. Not that he was saying anything. He seemed just as engrossed in his work as I was. He ran a hand though his hair whenever he was frustrated about something, I observed.

He looked up at me, his eyes wide and innocent, the eraser-side of his pencil brushing his chin. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing."

He raised an eyebrow, but went back to work.

I returned to my work too, but inhaled deeply every now and again. He smelt nice.


End file.
